Aster Tataricus (English Version)
by Lizzy Dezzy
Summary: AU. One shot. Ranma and Akane had a beautiful friendship but because of a training trip they had to say goodbye to each other. Will Akane wait for him?


_Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, it is property of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Media. I wish I did though._

…

"Let's go Ranma, follow me!"

Poor thing, I ask him to come and he comes without hesitation. He's so cute. I've been dragging him to all kind of places, and he, without complaining, accompanies me on all my crazy adventures.

Today I've decided to go to the top of the mountain, I need the flower that adorns its highest point. He knows this is very important for me, so he'll come and help me. He doesn't talk too much but he blushes a lot, I wish I could switch on his cheeks and make them redder, I don't know why but I love it when I can see his rosy cheeks lighting up.

I have known him for 15 days and since the first one we've become really close. I don't know what he's doing here or when he's going to leave, but I know that if that happens I'm going to see him again, he promised me, in fact, he'll marry me. Not today, of course not, not tomorrow, but when the time comes he'll give myself a ring and then I'll say yes. I told him that he has to wait twelve years and then ask for my hand like a gentleman, that's what people on the movies do.

"Akane!" he says while looking at me and blushing stretches my hand. "Come here, I'll help you, you won't be able to reach this branch."

"Of course I can, I'm very strong" I jump and try to grab the stupid branch but it's too high and I can't reach it, so I fall.

"I told you. You dumb!" He shouts sticking out his tongue.

"Idiot!"

"Ugly!"

"Weirdo!"

"Worm's face!"

"That's not even an insult!" I retort while crossing my arms, did I say that he also drives me crazy?

"Well…whatever." He mumbles sheepishly. "Come on, let's hurry up. It will be dark soon and we can't be here alone so late."

I nod and follow him accepting his help, he's very young but also very protective, sometimes he looks like my father, and he's only 47 days and 8 hours older than me, although he's very stubborn and he gets angry easily if I do something that could hurt me. He says I'm clumsy and that I look like a boy, he doesn't know anything about girls. I like to spar and I like Ranma because he likes martial arts as much as I do. Girls in my class they prefer to comb their hair and dance during the breaks imitating famous bands, I like that, but I also enjoy playing soccer with the boys. I know that my sister Kasumi wants me to do more feminine things, but I just don't feel like it.

We keep climbing to get to the top, but with every step I feel more tired, the hike is longer than what I expected. Ranma stops and turns his head to see that I am not as fast as before, so he snorts and comes to me so we can walk side by side. He's not talking so I look at him and I notice his cheeks are turning slightly red, then he grabs my hand and starts moving forward, I am so happy that I now feel full of energy, like always, thanks to him.

My father says Ranma is and will be very important in my life, I don't know what he's talking about, but he allows me to play with him because he says he's trustworthy. Dad says that I can't go far from home, that I have to stay always near him, but he doesn't know that I'm disobeying his orders. We've been sneaking out every afternoon since Ranma came to our house.

My sisters don't want to do these kind of things with me, Kasumi is taking care of his studies and learning how to be like mom and Nabiki is out all day selling necklaces and painted stones, she says she has to start saving money for her future. These days with Ranma I've had a great time, he's very funny and arrogant, he's also so proud that if someone challenges him to eat a cockroach, he ends up doing it. But who am I to talk? I must admit that I would do the same, there's nothing that Tendo Akane is not able to do.

The sun is hiding behind the trees, if our parents were to find out that we are here at this hour we would be grounded for ever, we are late and I still haven't gotten my flower. It's a flower called Aster Tataricus, I've wanted it for a long time but nobody has ever wanted to accompany me, and now that I finally have the opportunity I can't leave without it. Ranma tells me we should go back home but I don't want to, I need that flower for my collection, to keep completing the album that mom gave me. I know, I'm very stubborn. I can't control myself and I feel like I'm going to cry, but then Rama notices it and he approaches me fearfully.

"Stay here Akane" he says placing his hands on my shoulders, after that he disappears.

I sit on a small rock on the ground, I hope nothing bad happens to him, I don't know where he is or what is he thinking about, but I don't like being alone, my father told me tales of monsters that inhabited these mountains, but mom always scolded him and told me there were no monsters. I miss mom. I've been very sad since she left, but having Ranma with me these days made me a little bit happier.

Ranma comes running towards me, carrying my flower on his hand. I look at the flower and then at him, I can't help it and I hug him. He stays motionless and I notice his fingers are moving nervously, I understand that it bothers him and I move away.

We carefully go back home, when we get to the patio he helps me climb through my window and we both get into my room quickly, we take off the dirt from our clothes and we sit on the floor just in time, a few seconds later Ranma's mom comes in and tells us that dinner is ready.

Mrs. Saotome is very nice, she treats me very well and uncle Genma is a strange man but very funny, he gets along great with my father and since they're here he's also happier.

During dinner Ranma and I fight kicking our legs under the table, that fool laughed at me because of some raw cookies I made that morning. He says they're tasteless and that my cooking is worse than a rat's, so I grab a mallet I found in the closet and hit him in the head. My father scolds me and forces us to make up, so in a minute everything has been forgotten and I'm already thinking about the adventure we'll be in tomorrow.

However, our parents say they need to talk to us with a very serious face, I hope they haven't found out what we've done this afternoon.

"Hey kids, did you enjoy these days you've been together?" Dad asks us and we nod happily. "Good. Look Akane, my dear, today is the last night Ranma will spend with us. Tomorrow he'll leave for a long training with his father and won't be back for a long time."

"All right!" I reply happy, I also love training trips. "Where will we go?"

"My little girl, you won't go, only uncle Genma and Ranma. They'll be traveling through different countries and it's not safe for you to go with them."

"But ... But Ranma and I have to be together." I start talking nervously, "Ranma is my best friend."

"Akane... Akane is also my best friend. Mom, she can come with us, right?" He asks frowning his eyebrows.

"Son, Akane-chan can't go, she has to be with her dad and her sisters. But I promise you will see her again."

"When?" I ask angrily.

"In… a few years …" Confesses his sad mother.

"Years!?" Both of us yell at once.

"You can send him letters, and even call him if you want." She says looking at us with grief, then she turns to her left to see her husband. "It breaks my heart to separate them now Genma."

"I know Nodoka, but when Ranma becomes a man among men he'll be the worthy heir of the dojo."

"Nodoka-san, that's right, it's for Ranma's and Akane's sake."

I can't take it anymore and I run to my room raging. First my mom left, I know she'll never come back, that's why I don't want to lose Ranma as well. I cry lying on my bed, I take my teddy bear and I hug him with all my strength. Then I hear someone knocking at my window, I open it and there's Ranma, hanging upside down like a vampire. His face is really red because all his blood went to his head, he looks like a tomato floating on the air. He made me smile again.

I let him come inside and we sit on the floor, neither of us say anything, we're just 4 years old so we really don't know what to say in a situation like this.

"Ak-Akane…" He says stammering.

"What's up?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

"I know ... What a bummer! Now that we were having such a good time. I don't want you to go…"

"Neither do I, but your father says that if I leave, that ... will make you very happy in the future."

"I don't understand the future ... I know that tomorrow I'll be sad and that doesn't make me happy."

"I ... I'll come back, I promise."

"Will you come back for me?"

"Of course!"

"Pinky swear?" I ask showing him my little finger to make the official oath, everyone knows that a pinky swear is unbreakable.

"I swear." He accepts while hooking his finger with mine.

"Well, then I'll wait for you."

The next day we say goodbye to each other with a shy hug that our parents force us to give. As I watch him go I start crying, I don't want to but I feel very sad, I truly didn't want to be separated from him and since his mother also cries, I don't feel so bad about it.

When his little figure is about to disappear I start the fastest race I've ever done, I reach his arm and he turns around, then I give him a kiss on the cheek, the same cheek I love to see while turns redder, again he's blushing.

... ..

I can't believe I wrote this 12 year ago already. No wonder I won so many literary competitions, I did have a lot of vocabulary.

From the day of his departure I waited for Ranma, during years I looked out the window waiting for him to arrive with that little black braid that looked so funny to me, but that day never came. We sent each other some letters, they all included drawings of insects and angry clouds, don't ask me why, children's imagination is amazing. When we were 10 I stopped receiving letters or calls from him, but three years later, he phoned again. He told me his training was becoming very hard and intense, which kept him so busy and exhausted that he couldn't write some silly letters, I was actually glad to hear his voice, much more mature than what I remembered. When we were 14 I received his last letter saying that he didn't know if he could talk to me again any time soon. I understood that it was meant to be a goodbye, an excuse, so I couldn't be mad with him if he never contacted me again, he was hiding behind that training that was turning him into a man among men. And was that supposed to make me happy in the future, my father said? How wrong he was. My friendship with Ranma has been one of the sincerest things I've ever experienced, and it hurt a lot not having had him by my side as I grew up.

I would be lying if I don't confess that there's no day when I don't think about him, but I abandoned the idea of seeing him again a long time ago. I am already in high school, I'm 16, I haven't yet found my prince charming, I haven't looked for him either. My father keeps saying that he'll come back, that his promise with Mr. Saotome will be fulfilled, but in two years so many things may have happened, maybe he even has a beautiful cook as a girlfriend or a Chinese Amazon as a fiancée, who knows. What will always remain is the sweet memory of that boy who unknowingly cheered me up and gave me a reason to move on, I can't blame him for not returning, we should all continue with our lives, if we were guided by the feelings we had when we were kids we'd be lost. However, he was and is very important to me. His letters encouraged me and made me happy, his phone calls made me smile, and because of that, knowing that none of this will ever happen again I feel really sad. That's why I've decided to reread my diary, I wanted to check if Ranma really was someone significant for me or if, on the contrary, I have idealized him over the years. I am happy to see that our friendship had deeply affected the 4-year-old Akane.

I hear someone knocking at the main door and my sister asks me to attend the visitor because she's busy, so I run there but when I open it there's no one to be seen, things like this are the ones that drive me crazy, always thinking that it could be him and then, he's never.

I try to close the door but something stops me, under my gaze I see a small and wild bouquet of lilac flowers. I automatically think that they are from Kuno senpai, a moron from high school who tries to go out with me almost every day, but when I reach and smell them I notice they are in fact Aster Tataricus. That's not possible, I tell myself.

The world is full of coincidences, today I decided to reread my journal and his letters, and then some hours later I receive a flower bouquet that reminds me of Ranma, it's like a bad joke.

I put the bouquet in a vase to decorate my desk, and then I see him. He's outside the window hanging upside down like a vampire looking at me with those blue eyes and a slight blush on his cheeks. His features are really manly, his braid is longer, his body is spectacular and he's much taller, however he's still Ranma.

"Are you going to let me come inside, worm's face?" He says smiling.

I let him come inside and without hesitation I hug him as I did when he helped me on the mountain. He remains motionless, god how I missed his shyness. How I missed him. But now something is different, I feel he's doubting, but seconds later he puts his strong arms around me, I couldn't be happier.

"It took you 12 years." I murmur tightening the embrace.

"Yes, but I promised you that I would come and here I am." His voice sounds even more firm and serious, but I see a huge smile on his face and I feel like melting.

"I missed you. Do you swear you'll never leave again?" I ask while looking at him and showing him my little finger.

"I swear!" He says satisfied hooking his finger with mine.

THE END

….

Thanks to all of you who read the story, this is actually a translation of a fanfic I wrote some time ago in Spanish. As you can see, I'm not an English native speaker, I am learning English and I thought this would be a good way to practice it, so I'm really sorry if there are a lot of mistakes or typos… please let me know if you see something wrong.

I hope you enjoy it.

See ya!


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